


Discovery: A Star Wars Story

by kathrikat



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Adventure, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Force Visions, Force dreams, Han Solo Says Fuck, M/M, Multi, Outer Space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:01:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22395976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathrikat/pseuds/kathrikat
Summary: Ever since she accepted Han’s job offer, she continuously found herself stuck in a state of Murphy's Law.NOTE: UNFINISHED, will never update again
Relationships: Leia Organa/Han Solo, Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey
Kudos: 3





	1. Malicious Intent

**Author's Note:**

> an AU where Han wasn't killed by Kylo, and instead Rey wholeheartedly accepted the offer she wanted  
> a silly, crazy, and less serious story I wanted to write  
> this is from about 2 years ago, I slightly edited it to sound a bit better but it's mostly unchanged bc I still kind of like it :D

Rey felt an imbalance in the air. Unlike a scratch, there was no way to relieve this tension. There was no easy specific source that she could grab at. All she could do was wait. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, temporarily mitigating the physical aches in her body. _Trust me,_ she thought, if _I could’ve slept by now, I would've._

In front of her, the Millennium Falcon's terminal flashed bright green text. 

LCTN: WLD SPC 

CRDNTS: 23678.14 , -4152.88 

TM: UNKNWN 

MSGS: NNE 

Although the string of words may have looked strange and unreadable to others, Rey translated instantaneously. Messages like these were virtually impossible to translate through machines because of the lack of vowels. In actuality the terminal read: 

LOCATION: WILD SPACE 

TIME: UNKNOWN 

MESSAGES: NONE

The computer itself ran on a 4 hour timer. This meant that every 4 hours it would send whoever was piloting an extremely simplistic status update. Rey not only found this especially useful for jobs like this, but also simply because the timer was something she could rely on. If nothing else, every 4 hours text will appear on the terminal. It was one of the few certainties in her new life. 

She shook her head and re-positioned herself, frowning at the uncomfortable feeling that settled around her. She became overwhelmingly unaware of not only exactly how _long_ she had been piloting the Millennium Falcon, but also how she gotten to where she was. This was textbook hyperspace hypnosis*.

And Finn and Poe were sound asleep.

| *hyperspace hypnosis - being capable of and doing standard space flight procedures, but having no recollection of doing so |

* * *

Ever since she accepted Han’s job offer, she continuously found herself stuck in a state of Murphy's Law. It got to the point where she no longer was surprised when things went terribly, terribly, wrong. This was how she found out how Han managed to stay so composed even when the threat of death loomed over them. Sure, Han was impulsive and rarely thought things completely through, but he wasn’t dead yet. To quote him, “Never tell me the odds!” 

Past the window shield she caught a glimpse of many different planets, the closest being Teth. It was Hutt space - she wouldn’t dare enter that territory unless absolutely necessary. This was because of many reasons, but most of them included Han’s prior affiliations with infamous gangster Jabba the Hutt.

Han’s current bounty placed by Jabba was 224,190 credits and gods knew that if they were attacked and/or captured, Han would stop at nothing to take down who did it. In fact, Han briefly mentioned to her about the search for Xim the Despot’s lost legacy. At the time, the Falcon was captured and you can bet he dragged everyone that was on his side at the time across the galaxy to retrieve it. Not only had they been captured, but they barely missed becoming human sacrifices.

Rey knew well about the many different types of ways to avoid hyperspace hypnosis. These avoidants included changing your environment, taking breaks, and watching something other than the space ahead. Foolishly instead, she began to reminisce.

* * *

_Everyone was huddled around the fire if it could even be called that. It was a poor excuse of one with maybe 8 or 9 sticks thrown into a haphazard and reckless pile. Han threw in a 14 hour regulator cube that helped the fire to keep it’s warmth and illumination. The chemical reaction created a stunning byproduct. Normally, the glowing ash that was carried would be a bright orange or red. However, this turned the ask a pulsating chartreuse It was like watching a mesmerizing swarm of fireflies._

_Despite speaking in terse detail the conversation changed sporadically. Han explained from the story of Dracula all the way to the Wookie Dewlanna._

But Rey could not focus nor could she remember what words exactly had been exchanged. Her eyelids tugged like anvils, lethargically pulling her head towards her chest. It physically felt impossible to keep her eyes open and so she rubbed both fists against her eyes to try and draw the sleep out. 

And when she opened them on all sides of her was an engulfing darkness.

* * *

For a moment she mistook it for going blind - but it wasn’t a frightening experience. Some part of her told her that this was non threatening; that it was the kind of dark that held your hand while you slept alone. She began randomly throwing her arms in every direction, hoping to establish her surroundings with the senses that weren’t debilitated. Strangely, she found no sides, no top, no bottom. No beginning or end to wherever she was.

“ _Hello_?” Rey asked. No answer. She knew even if something was there, they most likely would not have heard her. This was due to the fact that her voice had been muffled, distant almost. Like hearing music in the room over, or sitting in a room with sound absorbing foam.

It suddenly came to her attention that a light breeze was brushing strands of her hair past her face. She only knew because every once in a while she could feel that prickly tickling sensation and she had to continuously brush them out of her face. 

_Of course,_ she mentally scolded herself, _why didn’t I realize it before?_

Rey was falling.

* * *

Her adrenaline pounded against her skull as she plummeted to a certain death, if not to certain broken bones. She had no idea how high she had fallen from, nor did she particularly care. Out of instinct, she put her hands out to catch herself.

But the ground never came. Instead, almost instantaneously, Rey found herself standing perfectly upright. No scratches that she could tell with the poor vision she did have and no broken bones. She froze in her standing place, listening intently for _something._ Her heart beat so fast, it was too loud to hear anything else.

That is, until the footsteps.

She turned, trying her best to discern where the intruder was coming from but they seemed to emanate from all directions. Any calming effect she believed the darkness had completely dissipated. Whatever was coming for her had nothing but malicious intent. 

She ran faster than she ever had before. 

Her legs burned with each step and unlike before she continuously ran into what she assumed to be walls. It was like a much harder, much more terrifying house of mirrors.

“Get out!” she screamed, using all her willpower to throw her voice anywhere from being absorbed. But it was useless. She knew the footsteps were directly behind her now.

She struggled to find a solution to this. In predator-prey situations when faced with close predator conflict and confrontation, it is always better for the prey to stand still and allow the predator to inspect you. This is because running away is a sign of cowardice the animal kingdom and doing so will either end in a warning bite or worse, death.

Slowly, she turned around.

* * *

And inevitably found herself falling once more. This time her eyes could faintly see an approaching lightness she assumed was the actual ground now. This meant she hadn’t stopped falling, only gone somewhere much deeper for a brief moment in time. She hoped she’d never have to go back there, but something told her she would have to. That she’d have to go back to do the hardest thing in her life yet. Rey would have to face whatever lurked in the dark.

As she fell, a feeble voice echoed past her.

_These are your first steps..._

* * *

Rey jolted awake, not even realizing she had fallen asleep behind the wheel. A flashing red alert lit up the intercom receiver. It was Han. She pressed the palm of her hand into her eyes attempting to push back the tiredness that adorned her face and sat up. Under the steering mechanism she toggled the switch to "ON" and a green-looking hologram-ish Han appeared before her. Chewbacca's body was in frame but he was too tall and robust to be completely seen. 

"Where are you?" Rey immediately inquired. The tone of her voice was not unlike that of a worried mother interrogating her child. 

"Csilla. Are you almost there?" Han's voice came through in static-like quality.

"Csilla? Dear stars is this the dark ages? How is Chewie doing?" 

The Wookie roared miserably. 

" _Really_?" Han quipped, " _You're_ cold?" 

"You know," Rey continued, "It's kinda hard to almost be there when what you sent me was- well, let's see, shall we?" She brought up the transmission that was sent to her not three days ago. As it hovered over her face, she turned it around to show him. He squinted slightly to read.

"outer region. bigp lanet. know when see. dfsgj.nm" 

The last bit had clearly been a mistype. Wookie hands were quite large for man-made keyboards. Han clenched his teeth and she could visibly see his temple muscles flex. 

" _Chewie_! I told you to give her _coordinates_!" The Wookie let out a roar of defense.

"Oh please," Han retorted. Chewie simply turned and crossed his arms, implying he was through with the conversation. He continued to listen for in-the-know purposes.

Rey took a deep breath. It was her time to be tense. 

"Where am I going?" One press of a button transmitted her coordinates. She watched him furrowed his brows. 

"You're in wild space. And the closest planet to you is Teth. Still a bit too close to Hutt-space for comfort, huh?" 

Rey sighed, "I haven't come across any problems." 

"Well, let's make sure of that. Azul should be close by. Change your course route by 5." 

“Can do,” she said, turning various knobs and steering slightly to the right. 

“Listen, kid,” Han’s voice dropped and he got closer to the transmitter. “There’s probably something you should know before you get to Azul.”

* * *

His change of tone caught her off guard.

“And what’s that?”

“It’s a difficult place to navigate. Every square inch of it is going to be a pure unadulterated jungle biome. At least that’s our best guess. No one’s had contact with this place for centuries. I don’t know what you’re up against.”

Rey frowned. “If no one’s had contact with them for centuries then how do you know it’s biome? How did you even find it?”

Han grinned ear to ear. “I was hoping you’d ask that.”

* * *

It was then Chewie chimed in.

Rey stared at the screen. “What did he say? I couldn’t hear very well.” In fact, she was getting pretty concerned with the quality of this call. Each passing minute it was getting worse audibly and visually and she couldn’t pinpoint why. Everything on her terminal said that connection was optimal.

“He says a magician never reveals his secrets,” Han explained. 

She rolled her eyes at him. “And that means…?”

“It means,” Han chided, “that the planet is completely invisible.”

* * *

“So, you’re telling me, we came out all this way, just to see if a mythical planet exists or not?”

“Oh, no, it exists alright. C’mon, you know me better than that, kid. Chewie and I have been remotely controlling a satellite for a while now. It was originally used to help smuggle, but when we realized it could be put to better use, that was how we found it. 

“See, we’ve been getting high-pitched indiscernible frequencies for quite some time and this generally isn’t unusual - space is overflowing with old distress beacons, S.O.Ses, and all the like. We didn’t think much of it until we started taking pictures. Take a look for yourself.”

* * *

The screen displayed an image of random wild space. At first glance there was nothing unusual. 

“I don’t understand,” she said. “What am I missing?’

“Look closely..”

She squinted scanning over the image as meticulously as she could. Her eyes widened.

“Well I’ll be damned.”

On screen, barely distinguishable from the rest of the image, was the slightest refraction. Meaning the image didn’t perfectly line up in some places. Like something was sitting in the foreground you couldn’t quite make out. The reason no one was able to see this was simple. Automatically, the brain filters out and fills in spaces that don’t look right. It’s the same reason why your brain ignores two two of the same words in a sentence.

“And that’s where you think it is? You’re sure it’s not just a faulty satellite image?”

“One hundred percent. All of our other pictures are crystal clear, and when we took more from various other angles, we could still find refractions in the image.”

Rey found herself hesitant. If they found a planet that hadn’t been contacted in centuries, not only were their risks for themselves, but for the entire galaxy too. This could be huge both economically and biologically. 

“Okay,” she exhaled. “I trust you. Approaching Azul’s coordinates in T-Minus 5 minutes.”

Green light flickered across her face.

Rey furrowed her brows. “Hey Han, are you also experiencing connection problems?”

He looked at her strangely. “No, not at all. Why?” 

“It’s just weird. I’m in wild space but I’m still close enough to get a good range. Even my terminal says connection is optimal.”

“Huh. Here, let me just-" Suddenly, the monitor began to cut out completely in rapid pulses, taking Han's static voice along with it.

"-careful. Don't want-" 

"Han!" Rey exclaimed, hoping her voice was getting through. If for some reason they lost connection with Han and Chewie, that was it. They had no other way to contact them. 

"You're breaking up real bad! I don't know what's cut-" 

"Dead. And you can't let them-" 

"ting it out. I think someone is trying to jam us, hold on. Let me just-" 

And the screen went black. 


	2. Azul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey, Finn and Poe have quite the trouble landing on the veiled planet. Locked on by the planets magnetism, they only have three minutes before they're fried to a crisp by a radioactive "cloud"...
> 
> Meanwhile, left with no communication with the crew of the Falcon, Han and Chewie decide they have no choice but to make their escape off world. Of course, not without complications of their own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know nothing about magnets, magnetism or how it works. Also, like, this is star wars. yknow, the movies with lightsabers and where the Force makes people pregnant? so hopefully no harsh feelings that it might not /realistically/ make sense. After all, I did in fact, bullshit my way through this chapter because the first twenty times I left a lot of confusion and plotholes (lesson: dont write while youre high!). Unlike JJ Abrams, I at least tried to fix mine
> 
> (apologies for any typos I missed!)

Han blankly stared back at his own defeated reflection. 

“Damn it all,” he swore and turned various knobs, trying his best to clear the static. Chewbacca gave him a look that said _“What are we still standing around for?”_

“We can’t go chasing after them, Chewie. You know as well as I do that they can take care of themselves. We said we’d lay low for a while, remember? Besides, we have no way to get off this backwater hell hole.” But he realized Chewbacca wasn’t listening. The Wookiee was packing his essentials. 

_“Stupid_ _fur-ball!”_ Han rhetorically yelled at his first-mate’s back, “If you leave, I’m _not_ chasing after you!” 

Chewie slipped on his down camoflague to help his robust figure blend in with the endless snow. 

“I mean it, now!” Han pleaded, wincing as the door slammed shut. 

“That’s the hairy, seven and a half foot vrelt in the kitchen.*” Han mumbled to himself. He slipped on his own winter parka and goggles, making sure his blaster was attached to his side before following suit. 

> *”the vrelt in the kitchen” is an old Corellian phrase for “bad luck” or “disaster” 

* * *

The terrain of Csllia was not like most. Snow layered over the entire planet like one giant sheet and its main features were mundane glaciers and caves. The extreme low temperatures also made it virtually impossible for the average human to inhabit it. The Chiss were evolved to be able to withstand the harsh cold of their home planet. Han was especially creeped out by how the colors of their eyes and skin became more and more saturated when exposed to higher amounts of oxygen in the air. Though, none of this made Csilla a _total_ washout. The hydrosphere of Csilla contained a high percentage of mineral content that turned the glaciers blue. On a bright day, even Han couldn’t deny it’s beauty. 

Now, high winds plagued the planet. Despite wearing protective goggles, the rest of his surrounding skin was stung with tiny pellets of snow. It was times like these Han wished he had all that fur his counterpart proudly adorned. 

The wind howled past him. “What are you doing!” He yelled towards the Wookiee who was standing not six feet to his right. 

It was clear his friend couldn’t hear him when Chewbacca dramatically bellowed and shot an explosive flare into the sky. It wouldn’t be long until the Chiss Ascendency would send out something to try and detect them. 

The two of them watched the single scanner drone that was dispatched come over the far side of the ridge. A red light that glowed from the top of its flat oval shaped "head" lit up the terrain every now and then searching for life. Of course they wouldn’t have sent a star ship capable of leaving the planet just from one flare. For that, the Chiss would’ve needed to see a clear sign of aggressive hostility. Maybe even a sign of invasion. 

Han instinctively ducked, shielding himself from the metal sparks that suddenly erupted from the lone searcher. It swung wildly, trying it’s best to stay lifted. Then it skidded across the snow and landed lifelessly forty feet in front of them. 

Han beckoned Chewbacca over to a large snow hill. “The rest of the cavalry shouldn’t be far behind. C’mon.” 

* * *

They both peered over the top, keeping low and watching the older Arsiss-class clawcraft patrol overhead. It lowered itself next to the destroyed drone, kicking up a good amount of snow in the process. The way it settled into the snow made Han think of toppings settled on vanilla ice cream. 

A high pitched _shhh_ sound emitted, indicating the release of the airlock. Out stepped a stock looking Chiss. They wore off-white clothes and adorned a simple black belt and boots. Their blue skin was a dead giveaway in contrast of the snow. 

Han set his blaster to stun and fired. 

“ _Ktah!”_ The Chiss swore and then promptly collapsed. 

Chewbacca moved in one swift motion onto the scene, picking up the blue skinned fellow like they were a sack of potatoes and setting them where they wouldn’t be buried in a fresh layer of snow. Han and Chewie never killed if they could avoid it. 

The airlock hissed once more. Two partners in crime made their escape from a frozen wasteland. 

* * *

“Bee-bee!” Rey called, “wake up Poe and Finn for me, will you?” She tried to suppress the fear in her voice. Not only had she lost contact with Han, in a manner of minutes she had lost complete control of the entire ship. All main systems were shut down. It was running on backup generators now, which only kept the oxygen running for a few hours at most. Luckily for them, that was more than enough they’d need. Especially because they were being pulled towards Azul’s planetary orbit at a rapid rate. 

She unstrapped herself from the pilot’s seat, standing up to push several buttons above her. One by one, the emergency lights of the Millenium Falcon turned off. If there were life forms down there, she sure as hell didn't want them to know they were on board. 

“What’s going on?” Poe asked, pulling up the other half of his flight suit and looking out the cockpit windshield in concern. 

Rey stood up to greet her friend, “We’ve reached our destination but-” The ship lurched and they struggled to keep balance. “We have a slight problem.” 

“Who’s doing that?" Poe leaned over the dash, trying to get a better look outside, "Has someone got us locked on?” 

“More like some _thing_. My guess is that the planet’s gravitational pull has magnetic properties and it's caused everything to shut down except the C. E. C Emergency power and we both know that only controls the life support and the bulkhead doors. We’re one giant sitting duck!” 

Poe frowned, only seeing the vast foreverness of stars in the galaxy. “What planet?” 

The ship lurched again, tripping Finn over himself as he approached the cockpit. The Falcon began to rumble and shake uncontrollably as they were pulled through the veil. 

* * *

“I’ve never seen anything like this…” Poe remarked, one hand to his face as he eyed the lush, green plant. 

Finn on the other hand, stared at the planet in perplexed horror. 

“ _What_ is happening?” The young man yelped as he scrambled through the cockpit doorway and sat behind Poe to steady himself. 

Rey's voice came out stern, steady, “We've lost total control of the _Falcon_. If we’re being pulled in by the planet’s magnetism and it continues once we’re past the atmosphere then...” She stopped, unsure of how to tell her best friends that they'd all die a grisly death. 

"It's certain we'll crash land into the planet," she finished, turning in her seat to make sure she could look at the both of them. 

“What are our chances of surviving it?" Finn asked. His eyes could not move off the pilot. 

“Not good,” Rey shook her head, “Not good at all.” 

* * *

Han groaned as he repeated his partner's question. 'How many more parsecs until we’re _there_?' Chewie, we're at least a day and a half away so just settle in, will ya? I'm trying my damnest to find their signal , alright?" 

The Wookie moan-talked in the co-pilot seat. 

"You sure as hell wouldn't be talking like that if some First Order Patrol found us out here. Or better yet, some Hutts with their loyalties still tied up with Jabba." Han spat the name out like it was bantha fodder. 

Truth be told, he was worried about Rey and the others as much as the Wookiee was, if not more so. But Chewbacca had tendencies to make decisions on purely first impulse, first emotion. If there was one person that could talk the Wookie into something – to put things lightly – more _sensible_ it was Han Solo. In all the years he had known the Wookiee there was never a moment he didn't rely on that instinct. It was something Han admired, and sometimes mirrored on occasion. Remember the Death Star? We can all agree Han and Luke's "rescue" would've ended a much different way had Leia not shown up. 

_Leia_ , Han's heart lurched. He missed his Leia and sporadically ached for the family he once dreamed of. A speck of the light may still be clinging onto his son, but that did not change what the destructive path of the dark side seduced him to commit. The horrors Rey told him of in that interrogation room. The massacres he committed. How could he live knowing his sons hands were responsible for millions of deaths? _His son_ was the one that ordered countless, pointless genocide in the name of the _FIRST ORDER._ In the name of _DARTH VADER_. And he himself had been barely lucky enough to escape that wrath. He ached to have Ben back as much as Leia did, if not more so. But deep down, the each of them knew there was nothing left of their son to save. 

Chewie spoke up suddenly. There was an incoming hail from a familiar Hutt. 

"Great," Han quipped, "speak of the fucking devil." 

* * *

Poe used his datapad liberally, trying his hardest to help them get out. His eyes darted from Finn to Rey. "The atmospheric scan says that there could be an opening before we're sent to, well, our plummeting deaths." 

Rey, who was tired, afraid, and most of all _overwhelmingly_ sleep deprived, could not hide her aggravation, "I'm _all_ ears!" 

"The problem is even though there's the tiniest of an opening, the scan is also telling us that without our shields up and running, we'll be completely burned up by a radioactive "cloud" before we'd even think about hitting the ground." 

"Comforting," Finn coped with humor, "how long until that happens?" 

Poe typed into his datapad feeling the eyes of his friends weighting down his shoulders. A large countdown appeared on the front of his screen. His face paled. 

"How's three minutes sound?" 

"Think!" Rey outburst more to herself than anyone else. "What could possibly reverse the magnetism?" 

It was horrifically silent. Rey found herself back on Jakku, a small frightened child in the make shift place she was forced to call a home. In her hands a strand of small, round, magnets stuck together. Each time she tried to put them around her wrist, it was a futile attempt. The ends rejected each other much like light rejected dark. 

A light dinged in Rey's head. She stood up, flipping various other switches in preparation. Under her seat, there was a red crate of accumulated items that was essentially the space pilot's equivalent of a junk drawer. She produced five square relatively well sized magnets stuck together then looked to her co-pilot. 

"Poe. I need you to take control of the _Falcon_ while I put these where they need to be. Finn, you take the datapad and tell Poe the _exact_ moment we reach that gap, understood?" 

Finn nodded, taking the datapad Poe gave to her from her hands. "Understood," 

"Good," she said, "I'll be back!" 

* * *

Rey raced out of the cockpit to the engineering station first. She removed the grill, flipped herself under and stuck a magnet as close to the quadex power core as she could get. Two minutes thirty. 

Next, she entered through the bulkhead door that connected to the cargo bay. Inside, she removed the access grill, and dropped another magnet between the power converter and ion flux stabilizer. She didn't bother putting the grill back. Two minutes. 

This time, she went back around running through the main corridor and straight through the lounging area. Now she was in the storage bay, where she placed another between the auxillary cooling system and the deflector shield generator. One minute thirty. 

Back in the lounging room, she turn west from the holo board, stepped up, searched for the cryogenic power reserve cells, and put down another magnet. One minute ten. 

Now was going to be the tricky part. North of the holo board, the same direction the cockpit was facing, was a maintenance crawlway. Upon opening it, she could not help but wonder how Han could've fit in there, let alone Chewbacca. One minute. 

She pulled herself along as best she could shimmy herself. It was a hard task trying to hold the magnet and carry her own body weight. Forty seconds. 

Grime from lack of use coated her arms as she slapped the last magnet between the fore deflector shield generator and their subspace radio. Getting out of the crawlway was much harder than getting in, Rey soon found out. 

"Poe," Finn asked, "how good are your reflexes?" 

The datapad had begun to emit an alarm. An electronic voice spoke from it. "Exiting the outer atmosphere in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4,.." 

Poe grabbed hold of the controls, grimacing against the chance of impact. "They better be damn good enough!" 

"..2,1." 

Poe shifted the _Falcon_ to maximum power. 

* * *

"Now, come on. Any friend of Besadii kajidic knows I can't speak Huttese." 

The Hutt continued in his native tongue, "But you can _understand_ it. In a way, I admire that. Learning Huttese is not an easy accomplishment," he paused, "To never be able to speak it is most unfortunate for you. It is an honor you fundamentally can never achieve. I pity you." 

"Now listen here, I never even knew you lived. If Jabba-" 

The Hutt cut him off, "I have waited long enough, Solo. Your lack of payment means nothing to me now.' 

Han exhaled, his lips pulling up a little, "So this is all just a big misunderstanding." 

That booming laughter rang through Han's ears. Smoke enveloped the Hutt's grotesque body. 

"No, I'm here because I'm interested in your bounty." 

* * *

The _Falcon's_ shields came powering on a millisecond before they hit the radiation. 

"Oh, frizz! Rey did it!" Poe hollered in triumph, hitting Finn's shoulder enthusiastically. 

"Let's never do it again," Finn crossed his arms. 

The rhythmic pattern of shoes hitting metal indicated Rey's returning presence. "Is everyone alright?" She asked, wiping her sweat off her forehead and leaving a streak of grime in its wake. 

"What the hell happened to you?" Poe asked, but didn't dare lose focus in piloting the _Falcon._ After all, he did still need to get them out of the cloud. 

"Just a little hang up with the maintenance crawl way. It's nothing." 

Finn continued to stay turned away from his friends, "I wouldn't exactly call what just happened _nothing._ " 

The co-pilot flipped a switch on the dash as Rey sat behind him, "Hey, have a little faith, will ya?" 

"You mean like the faith I had to come out with the two of you?" 

"We 're not dead _yet_ , are we?" Poe attempted to offer as he looked toward the approaching planet below. 

"I don't see us out of this mess, _yet_ ," Finn retorted. 

Poe scrunched his face up, and turned to face his friend "Rey saved our _lives_!" 

"Can we _please_ get along?" Rey's voice overpowered the both of theirs combined, causing the two of them to look at her. They each must've seen how tired she was, because they kept a steady silence. She continued, "If we don't get along, we won't last a day down there." 

Finn leaned back in his seat. Poe stared out the cockpit. 

"So is there anything you two would like to talk about?" 

"No," the two of them replied in unison. 

"Good," she said, "then let's park this thing." 

* * *

Chewbacca moan-talked in protest at the hutt's "interest". 

"When the hell did _you_ learn Huttese?" Han demanded. The first thing his mind did was think of all the moments the Wookie could've been listening to conversations he considered private. His face immediately flushed. 

"How much do you _know_?" Han had an accusatory finger pressed into the Wookie, who gave him a look that said " _enough"._

The Hutt ignored their banter. "You know as well as I, I am no friend of Jabba's. But I will have his money in my hands now that he's dead. You will surrender yourselves to our ship or I will beam security aboard and they will bring you in cold." 

Han swiped his hand across his neck, indicating to Chewie to cut the signal. 

"Then they'll bring us in cold," Han relayed to him. 

* * *

The landing wasn't the smoothest. The best they could do was land next to a small lake of water, which they could easily boil if necessary. Another advantage was even if they couldn't be in the _Falcon_ during the high temperatures of the day, they could still stay in a shelter under the _Falcon_ itself. That and, during the night, the ship's temperature was perfectly fine to roam about and sleep in. Rey and Finn stayed in the cockpit while Poe had gone to look at the central power to make sure nothing had gotten bumped around or damaged during their flight as well as to collect the various magnets Rey had placed. 

"The first thing we must do," Rey typed into the terminal, "is send an encrypted subspace message letting Han know we've made it and we're fine." 

Finn was leaned over her shoulder, eyeing what she was writing. At this point, Finn hadn't exactly mastered all the things the Resistance offered so it mostly just looked like garbled nonsense. "How do you know Han is on his way?" 

"I don't," Rey admitted, "It's just..." For a moment, she stared at her reflection in the terminal, then looked up to meet Finn's gaze. "A feeling." 

"A feeling," Finn echoed. 

"A feeling right here," she pressed a fist into his chest and made a face that looked like it hurt. 

Finn took hold of her fist and gently unfolded the fingers. Then, he laid her palm flat against him by placing his hand on top of hers. Rey had never felt such gentleness. 

His voice was barely above a whisper, "I know what you mean." 

"Am I interrupting something?" Poe had come back. He now stood in the cockpit doorway leaning against his arm overhead. Rey and Finn retracted and disengaged eye contact. 

She smiled, "No, not at all," then stood up, "But we need to grab what we can at this time, and make ourselves a small shelter outside. In this climate at this time of the day the heat will make the Millennium Falcon a rather suitable human oven." 

"And will all this foliage, I'm sure it rains like kriff," Poe added. "It would be a shame if we were all to get soaking wet." _Aw geez_ , he thought, _what an awful choice of words._

Rey heard the innuendo instantly, and could not help herself from looking Poe in the eyes. "Yes," she said, looking away just as fast, "the cold lowers the immune system's responses, making it harder for your body to fight off germs. We can't risk getting sick here. Who knows what we could catch." 

"Right," Poe said, "yeah." 

* * *

"We're in a star fighter and they're in a glorified yacht!" Han protested with Chewie, who was saying they couldn't fire because it wouldn't be fair. They overpowered the Hutt's ship at least four times over. Han couldn't care less if the Hutt and his cronies died, but Chewie felt otherwise. He argued that there was most likely slaves on that ship. If they destroyed the yacht, they'd be killing maybe hundreds of innocent lives. 

Han's stubbornness faded some, "What about a warning shot? Something to spook 'em the hell outta here?" 

The Wookiee sat on this a moment, then slowly began nodding his head in agreement. 

"Then let's do it. Set main blasters to minimum and target something that isn't... necessary." 

Chewbacca stared out the main viewer, then down to his aiming pad. 

Han winced as the yacht's subspace communicator went out, the shot passing through the shields and all. 

Chewbacca roared out, an alert beeping beside him. 

"Put him on screen," Han said with a sly smile. 

"You may win the battle this time, Solo. But the war never ends. We will meet again. Soon, I hope." 

The signal ended, and the Huttese yacht disappeared from view. 

"I hope not," Han shuddered, and the birthmark the Hutt bore turned into an image Han could not forget for the next few days. 

* * *

Two days passed. During this time, Rey, Finn, and Poe, worked on camoflauging the Falcon from above. Dead tree branches and old foliage worked quite well to blend it in with the jungle biome of the planet. Under the Falcon, they used bamboo like logs to create a lean to with some nice shade. It also acted as a barrier against the wind. To make this efficient, each of them used a rotation system in which one watched the sky, one helped, Bee-bee search for life while the other "got rest", if rest meant impatiently pacing and helping the others with their jobs. 

"There," Rey pointed, "it's an old star fighter. An Arsiss-class clawcraft." She smiled, handing her macrobinoculars to Poe. 

"But what would an old Chissan craft like that be doing all the way out here?" He asked, getting a good look for himself. 

"Han was on Csilla before we lost all contact. It _has_ to be him, I know it." 

"Whoa wait a second," Finn was facing the opposite direction of the ridge and turned himself around to face them. Poe handed him the binoculars so he could see himself. "We don't know anything for sure. What if this is some trap?" 

"Only one way to find out," And nothing could stop her from running toward the ship. 

* * *

When Chewie embraced Rey, she was sure she was going to break in half. 

"I'm happy to see you too, Chewie" she said, strained, "Did you have much trouble coming in?" She explained their incident in detail. 

The Wookiee conversed with her about the planet's atmosphere. Something about how there were magnets present in the claw-craft's shields that allowed them to pass through easily and that he'd show her how to permanently put her own in the Millennium Falcon as soon as possible. He also said they experienced no radioactive cloud, but that they most likely left openings every so often, like "regular" clouds. Quite impressed she made it through the way she did, he threw back his head enthusiastically. 

"Of course I made it through! I had the best teacher, you know." Rey glanced to Han, but Chewbacca beamed with pride. Behind him, she saw Han was talking with Poe and Finn, even _laughing_ with them. She could not help herself from joining them. 

"So, Rey, what's the verdict?" Han asked, walking with them to their lean to. 

"So far, nothing unusual. It's a beautiful place with perfect geographical landscape and climate for human beings. Or any other sentience of the like." 

"Yes," Han agreed, "it's like any stereotypical "paradise", but, where's the life?" 

Rey could offer nothing but a shrug, "I couldn't say." 

"Well, I'll tell you what," Han said, "we'll figure it out once I've had a rest. Chewie 'n I have had a hell of a trip." 

* * *

Upon Rey's request, everyone sat around a fire. One of Han's well known regulator cubes brought her a much needed comfort. Although she would not voice it aloud, it had become increasingly unnerving to her for the lack of life on this planet. There was no stir, no _feeling. Nothing,_ her inner voice echoed. She came back to the present when Han's voice turned cold. 

"Don’t you think it’s kinda strange that you've been here for almost three days and discovered no sign of sentient civilized life? No signals, no buildings, not even a bug? Bee-Bee, show me you're scan again." Han was getting visibly anxious. Rey, Finn, and Poe shared a glance, but said nothing. 

A sound came from Bee-Bee that could only be described as disappointment. The droid had found no signs of sentient life. According to their geographical scanner, there was nothing but this thick forest growth and occasional water for miles and miles. 

"I trust Bee-bee's scanners," Poe's voice was stern, borderline defensive. "Not every planet with Terran variables means there's going to be life there." 

"Of course not, kid. I never _said_ Bee-bee's scanners were untrustworthy. But how do we account for how this planet is so well cloaked? They might as well be using technology that's _blocking_ the droids sensors." 

As though he'd been preparing for such an argument, Poe responded with, "The cloaking could potentially be from the atmosphere-" 

"Not even a _bug,"_ Han griped, one accusatory finger pointed at the pilot, "And you're talking about the kriffing _atmosphere."_ It was heated now, overwhelming. And Rey could feel it, all of it. From the frustration to the anger to the pure _fear_ bubbling up inside of each of them. She turned to look at Finn, who was giving her a glance that said he felt something similar. Neither of them spoke up. 

Poe's face scrunched up, turned red. In his mind, it wasn't even the fact he could be wrong, he knew he could admit that. It was the fact he wasn't even being heard out that made his blood boil, "I _know_ what I'm talking about, you kriffing son of a bantha-" 

"I think that's _enough_ ," Rey stood up at the same time Han was. Although she knew the older man was plenty capable of handling himself when he needed to, that didn't mean she was about to let him fight Poe. "It's been a long day, we should all be getting some rest." 

"Suits me," Poe glowered and stalked back toward the _Falcon_ without another word _._

Rey and Finn both stared at Han. 

"Well, go on," Han demanded, "Chewie and I got our rest. We're with Bee-bee tonight." 

"Just make sure you don’t start an argument with him," Rey muttered as Finn followed her to the boarding ramp. 

* * *

"For a moment," Rey confided, "I was sure they were going to hit each other." She looked at Finn who sat across from her. His gaze was soft and he appeared to be biting on his inner cheek. 

"And _you_ with Poe while we were descending, I've never heard you two fight before, _ever._ " 

"I don't know," he looked away, "something just, took over." 

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Rey sighed as she got into one of the triple bunks. In a fit of sulking, Poe decided to sleep in the bunk in the lounging area. 

“You and I both.” Finn replied. “You and I both." 

* * *

That night Bee-Bee Eight kept watch with Han and Chewbacca. 

Despite listening to the two of them swear they wouldn't fall asleep, the droid bore witness to them doing just that. He too had known the side effects of boredom and occasionally used his shut down function but decided that this night was not that night. He had seen Han's reaction to the lack of life, and even though bee-bee was a droid, it was obvious he also felt a sort of... discomfort with the readings. 

The bulbous camera the droid had heard Rey call countless times his "eye" recorded the passing of five consecutive hours. 

At five hours thirty, Han and Chewbacca woke to the sound of Bee-bee's life scanner, louder and shriller than ever. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Finn alludes to his force sensitivity in a short scene here. why cant he feel it's Han but Rey can?" Although Finn starts to admit his force sensitivity to Rey in this chapter, I do not believe his force sensitivity is as strong as hers 
> 
> "Who is the Hutt Han meets?" I give no name, so I leave this up to the reader to imagine themselves. However at the end I do hint at a birthmark on the Hutt's face and that its part of the Besadaii kajidic. (*cough*durgathehutt*cough*)
> 
> "How could you write Han giving up on his son like that?" Han knows that there must be a speck of light in his son. Leia tells him all the time. But he cannot ignore the horrors his son has committed. Just like Obi-wan could not ignore the killings of Anakin (the women and the children, too). Han desperately wants to save him but knows there is nothing HE can reach at. After all, Kylo almost kills him in this AU..
> 
> "whats up with everyone fighting with each other? seems a little... off?" theres a reason for that, maybe one more sinister than you think!


End file.
